There Needs To Be A Change To Have More Empowering Female Leads In Film

Push For A Change In Film

It’s easy to get lost in a fantasy world of Disney Princesses and Plastics. Grow up girl, these have just been on-screen ‘role models’ we’re bombarded with. From a young age the lesson we learn from the silver screen is that in order to get your “happily ever after”, it’s Prince Charming that will do the trick.

It is sad that not has much as changed in contemporary cinema since our younger years, asCinderella hits the big screen, Emma Watson has been cast to play Belle from Beauty and the Beast, The Little Mermaid’s currently undergoing a make-over by Sophia Coppola, Diablo Cody is putting her pen to paper to write the recently confirmed Barbie film franchise.

Its like we’re stuck in a time capsule looking up to the heroines of our past as they get revamped in our future because not much else has come along since. The nostalgic dream girls from our past might make perfectly pretty pictures on our Instagram feed but when it comes to movie role models,we need to have something much more.

These days, it seems like female protagonists are slipping into a certain cinema category. For example we have the materialistic teen queen from films such as Mean Girls or Clueless – often a Beverly Hills brat that every girl wants to be like and boy wants to sleep with. There’s the sex-shamed – like golden girl Lux Lisbon from The Virgin Suicides, who after losing her virginity on a football pitch, resorts to suicide. There’s the psychotic hopelessly devoted – like Ariel from The Little Mermaid or the sickly sweet Sandy from Grease – these are the girls who change who they are for a love interest.

This is problematic. This portrayal of girls may be visually appealing, but the truth is that female roles and lead are stereotyped and sexualized.

Our current culture is unfortunately one of gender discrimination. Even if its not implied verbally, its still implied in many other ways. From sexual harassment, to the ever-existing pay gap, we’re still trapped in a patriarchal society and this is why we need more progressive and powerful female leads in film.

In the end we will celebrate strong women on screen and use cinema as a medium to communicate ideals about gender equality.

It sure is a man’s world out there, but it would be nothing without a woman.